Johannesburg , South Africa -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A South African pensioner has died while waiting in a queue to buy tickets for the soccer World Cup , with people lining up for 20 hours in some cases and system problems causing further delays .

Cape Town police spokesperson Ezra October confirmed to CNN that 64-year-old Ralph van Heerden collapsed and died while waiting to purchase 11 World Cup tickets on Thursday morning .

He was certified dead by paramedics when they arrived on the scene at around 7:15 a.m. local time -LRB- 0515 GMT -RRB- . It is believed that he had a heart problem . According to police , paramedics tried to resuscitate him but failed .

The man had waiting in line for five hours and was number 565 in the queue .

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South Africans across the country have been queuing since Wednesday afternoon in a last-minute bid to be part of the first football World Cup on the continent , with 500,000 tickets still available .

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CNN 's Nkepile Mabuse was in a queue outside the Sandown ticketing center in Johannesburg , one of 11 across the country .

She said the first person in line there had been waiting for 20 hours -- and then he had to wait an extra hour due to problems with the ticket machines .

`` I talked to a member of the local organizing committee and he said the system had crashed . The tickets could n't be printed , '' Mabuse said .

The tickets will be available only to South Africans until 1600 GMT , and from then overseas people will also be able to purchase them through the Web site of soccer 's governing body FIFA .

FIFA said 1,610 tickets were sold to 310 customers nationally at the ticketing center within the first hour on Thursday morning , with 2,166 tickets bought by 470 fans at branches of the First National Bank .

`` There was a massive demand for tickets this morning , which we are delighted with . We experienced some delays in issuing tickets at the outset , but we have been working on improving the response time of the system , '' said James Byrom of FIFA 's official ticketing service provider MATCH .

Mabuse said it is likely there will be empty seats at some of the tournament 's group-stage games , especially outside the main cities , despite South Africans being offered tickets at a discounted rate of $ 18 .

`` It is going to be very difficult to sell them all -- only 220,000 were sold at the last phase , '' she said . Many of the 500,000 tickets made available had been returned from overseas affiliates .

`` There are fewer foreign fans coming than originally expected . There were 450,000 expected but it will be nowhere that , people have been saying it 'll be more like 300-350 ,000 . ''

Another problem for local organizers is that South Africans are used to buying tickets on the day of events . Tickets had previously been only available via the Internet and one South African bank , but organizers have been forced to allow supermarkets to become outlets as well as the 11 official sales centers .

`` It has been very difficult for South Africans to get tickets , '' Mabuse said . `` The majority of people here are poor and they ca n't afford to buy tickets . And only 10 percent of the population have access to the Internet . ''

FIFA gave away many tickets at the Confederations Cup in South Africa last year to avoid the prospect of empty stadiums , but Mabuse said that was unlikely to be repeated at the World Cup .

`` I asked FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke and he said that was not going to happen again -- they would rather have some empty seats than give tickets away , '' she said .

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A 64-year-old man dies while waiting to buy tickets for the soccer World Cup in South Africa

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Cape Town police say the pensioner had been number 555 in the queue

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South Africans had waited up to 20 hours as 500,000 tickets were made available

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Problems with ticketing machines had caused further delays at some centers , FIFA said